LONDON — The Olympic swimming competition ended Saturday night, and the 49 members of the U.S. Olympic team will take some time off before returning to their regular job.

Swimming.

Forty years ago, Mark Spitz won seven gold medals at the Olympic Games and broke seven world records. Then he quit and got a job. True, his job was pitching razors for Schick, but the greatest male swimmer this side of Michael Phelps ended his swimming career after being the biggest star in the Munich Olympics.

Spitz swam in two Olympics; Phelps just finished his fourth, which he said afterward was his last. The average age of Spitz’s second team was 18.3; the average of this year’s team is 23.6.

What’s happening to swimmers’ careers? Have they found a new ingredient to their daily diet? Yes.

It’s called money.

Increases from sponsorships, endorsements and USA Swimming have combined to motivate swimmers to stay in their sport longer. Don’t envy swimmers too much, however. A select few, such as Phelps, get rich. Some barely get by. One bad season and they could be selling nails at The Home Depot.

But no longer are members of the national team holding down side jobs.

What every sport needs to attract attention, and money, is an athlete who transcends the sport. Phelps did that in 2008 in Beijing where he broke Spitz’s mark with eight Olympic gold medals.

The endorsements swooped in. According to the Baltimore Business Journal, he has 11 sponsors, including Subway, Hewlett-Packard, Visa and Head & Shoulders. Each sponsorship, the publication said, starts at $1 million. After he won his seven golds in Beijing, Speedo gave him a $1 million bonus.

“I hate to give the credit to one person,” said A.J. Maestes, a Chicago-based sports marketing expert and president of Navigate Research, “but Michael Phelps is such a big deal.”

There has been some trickle down effect that helps other swimmers. In the past four years, Ryan Lochte not only closed the gap but regularly beat Phelps. He became the pinup boy of this year’s men’s swim team. Sprint, Gatorade, Gillette and Nissan are in his stable, and Vogue put him on its cover.

It’s easy to see why endorsers and sponsors are attracted to swimmers. Few sports have athletes with healthier physiques or have faces bigger on a TV screen. And when was the last time American swimming had a scandal?

Bush points to athletes in mainstream team sports. He said he watched the last NFL draft and marveled at the pure joy these behemoth college athletes felt when shaking the commissioner’s hand.

“But within a very short period of time, they’re not happy with playing time,” Bush said. “They’re not getting enough love, enough money. I think corporations look at that sometimes and think, ‘What does it take for us to be satisfied?’

“With swimmers, it’s not what we’re getting paid. It’s what we’re striving for. That separates us from other sports.”

Centennial’s Missy Franklin could get in the Lochte category. She’s only 17, has the bubbly enthusiasm that is honey to the bees on Madison Avenue and she won five medals here, including four gold. With multiple Olympics in her future, and just entering her senior year of high school, she has plenty of time to sort out offers with the help of her parents.

It’s not just the swimming superstars who are cashing in, however. Everyone on the national team is now. Two years ago, USA Swimming upped its monthly stipend, called the Athletes Partnership Agreement, to its national team members from $1,000 a month to $3,000.

Granted, they can’t shop for cars on that, but they can shop for groceries, which helps prolong careers and makes Team USA even stronger. U.S swimmers won 16 gold. China had the next most with five.

“Look at track,” said Cullen Jones, the silver medalist 3in the 50-meter freestyle and a man who has endorsements with Johnson & Johnson and CitiBank. “I was talking to (sprinter) Maurice Green and he said he didn’t understand how to run the 100 until he was 28 or 30. There are a lot of people who really didn’t understand how to swim these events at young ages. You need to experience the sport longer.

“I’m still learning to swim the 100 free.”

None of this is to say swimmers have it easy. They have tremendous pressure to perform well. The moment they falter, so does their stipend, not to mention endorsements and sponsorships.

USA Swimming funds any American in the top 16 in the world and on the national team. Starting in 2014, Americans must be in the top 14 and on the national team, and in 2015-16 it’s top 12 and the national team.

“It’s definitely helped,” said Jason Lezak, a three-time Olympian and hero of the 2008 400 freestyle relay team. “But it’s so hard based on our sport and how often we’re out there in the public eye. There are a lot of Olympians who even when they win medals can’t even get a sponsorship.”

When Lezak finished his college eligibility at Texas and turned pro in 1998, he had so little sponsorship money he had to move into his parents’ house to finish his last year of college. He lived there two years before gold and silver relay medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics earned him enough sponsorship to move out.

“I think it’s going to have to evolve even more if you want to see these guys reach their full potential and continue swimming even longer,” Lezak said. “I’m proof that you can do this for a long time at a high level, and I’m itching to see if Ryan keeps going another four years and some of these other guys get in their late 20s and how they do.”

More in Sports

It was expected to be a showcase for NCAA hockey … and it lived up to the billing. On the opening night of a rare regular-season two-game matchup of the top two teams in the national rankings, the No. 2 Denver Pioneers got a goal and two assists from sophomore forward Troy Terry and knocked off No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth 4-3...

MONTREAL — It’s a big deal to play or coach hockey in Montreal and Toronto, and for first-year Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, it’s bound to be extra special because it will be his first time in those historic Original Six markets. Indeed, the Canadian native from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, has never been to the Bell Centre or Air Canada Centre — where...